Something to Ask You
by Chelle-sama
Summary: Professor, I have a question...? SonomiFujitaka Now in a READABLE format! Yay!


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Disclaimer: CLAMP still owns everything, except what they don't own 'cause they sold the rights or whatnot to someone else. But I'm not someone else – I'm Chelle - so I'm not one of those who owns something. Got it? Good. ^_^

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Dedication: To Circe for reminding me that Sonomi would face him head on. Kind of her fault anyway…stupid plot bunny hopping off course and into MY head. *sigh*

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Notes: Oblong is a real restaurant in Tokyo. Sounded very nice. Oh, beware…Sonomi swears with alarming frequency. Every time I write her, she swears. Who knew? First in the "Something" trilogy. I forced the cute blond from episode 22 (Sleep) to be Tadashi.

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Something to Ask You

Sonomi glared at the closed office door as though it was her arch-nemesis, or as if said nemesis stood just beyond it, taunting her. 

It was a fairly apt metaphor. Behind that door was Kinomoto Fujitaka-sensei, who was the closest thing to an arch-nemesis Sonomi was likely to find. And he _was_ taunting her. Not like he usually did, but by being…well, just by being himself. The bastard. But he was not her nemesis, arch or otherwise, because Sonomi was about to ask him something that normal people simply _did not_ _ask_ a nemesis. She was going to ask him out. For a date. A real one, not just meeting up "accidentally" (it really _wasn't_ planned but she always assumed she'd end up spending the day with him) at school fairs or festivals. No, she was thinking of a childfree, candlelight and conversation, let's-think-of-just-each-other _date_.

And it was making her nervous, even though she'd been thinking of him "like that" for quite some time, and he certainly liked her well enough. It felt awful - the pounding heart, butterflies in the stomach sensation she remembered from adolescence. She was a grown woman, for crying out loud, and it was _Kinomoto_-sensei. She _wasn't_ some fluff-brained teenager. But she felt like a mindless twit and _that_ irritated her. 

He was probably sitting in there, Sonomi thought, all calm and collected while she stood around feeling foolish. No nerves for him, that smiling weasel. Well, they'd just _see_ about that, wouldn't they? She was about to knock him right on his ass. 

"KINOMOTO-SENSEI!" She roared, flinging open the door hard enough to have it rebound off the wall. 

Oh, he _was_ a bastard. Perhaps the only thing she hadn't thought of was the one thing he'd done. He wasn't in the office. Sonomi felt her temper spike.

A faint movement in the corner drew her eye. Kinomoto's teaching assistant was starting to peek fearfully through his fingers at her. Sonomi smiled. He'd broken his protective camouflage in exactly the same manner as the new interns at Daidouji Toys. Nobody, she knew, worked harder or faster than a terrified intern. (If experience didn't count for something, Sonomi would have run her company with nothing _but _interns.) A teaching assistant, she mused, was probably a lot like an intern. Perfect.

"YOU!" Sonomi, having been in the room for less than a second, turned full force on the poor boy. 

"I'm not him!" The assistant/intern squeaked in terror. Sensing what was surely his impending doom, he began trying to back through the wall.

Sonomi glared at him. "You will take a message. Now!" She barked, when he didn't snap to fast enough. She was gratified to see the boy all but leap to the desk and drag out a pen and pad of paper, both of which he held up for her inspection. A snap of her fingers made him scramble into the chair and hunch over the paper, ready to write down every last syllable.

"You will tell him to be at Oblong at 8 o'clock TONIGHT. He will be nicely dressed and NOT looking like he's just come from his classes. He will NOT bring any university work, archeology research, or children to dinner with him. And if he so much as THINKS of _STANDING ME UP_ I will have him SHOT. Have you got that?"

"Oblong, eight tonight. Alone, nicely dressed, no work. Goes or dies." The intern pro-tem repeated, trying to make himself a smaller target.

Sonomi nodded shortly, whirled around, and marched out. Halfway down the hall, she heard the young man call out "Sh-Sh-Should I tell him to bring f-flowers?" She smiled to herself again – he _was_ just like her interns! - before turning and fixing him with a steely look. 

"Yes. I may be taking him out, but damned if _I'm_ going to bring _him_ flowers." The teaching assistant nodded jerkily and beat a hasty retreat. Calm and happy once again, Sonomi made her way back to her car.

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"Tadashi-kun, did you get a chance to grade...are you okay?" Kinomoto Fujitaka was surprised to see his teaching assistant cower when he opened the door.

"N-no, I didn't g-get anything done." The young man looked around timidly before continuing. "Kinomoto-sensei, I …I think you have a dinner d-date. A lady," Fujitaka watched as the boy quailed slightly, "came in about t-t-twenty minutes ago and…and…said t-to tell you…to give you a-a message…" Tadashi gave up on speech entirely and just handed over the message pad. 

"Hmm…it sounds like Sonomi-kun, but she'd only have dinner with me if she got to poison my food first. What did she look like?"

"Sh-she…she…she…. Um…_angry_."

"That's her." Fujitaka settled himself at the desk and began to sort through his paperwork before glancing up again. "Did she say what kind of flowers I should bring?"

"Um…no." 

"Huh. Well. Could you hand me that phone book, please?"

Tadashi blinked at Kinomoto-sensei. Clearly, the man was crazy. He was looking up the number of a nearby florist. So he could bring flowers to a madwoman. Slowly, quietly, Tadashi began backing towards the door.

"I have a date tonight with someone who usually wants to see me dead. What kind of flowers would you recommend? …. No, not roses, those are what you bring when you don't know what to bring. …. I know I did, but I think she's expecting me to bring something a little more personal than roses, and I'd rather not have to face her wrath _before_ dinner. …. That sounds pretty. …. Um, no. No nadeshiko flowers…we have issues about those. …. Hmm. Those are nice. …. Those are pretty, but I'm allergic to them. …. No. …. Ah, nothing with cherry blossoms, peach blossoms, or fujitaka, either. Well, maybe one fujitaka - if you can hide it so that she won't see it right away."

Tadashi made a run for it.


End file.
